The Love of a Father
by Violet Scarlet Lily
Summary: When Claire tells Aaron who his father is, she tells him it is not biology that makes a good father. She tells him that it's love. A series of oneshots celebrating the adorable makeshift family of Charlie, Claire, and Aaron. Written by Lily!
1. Chapter 1

**Hola! I know I haven't written anything in a year. I've been working on doing self-created fiction. but I have writer's block so I wrote a Lost story. It's AU, they get rescued from the island at the beginning of Season 4. Here you go, hope you like it.**

She has only one picture of him – it was given to her by his brother. She keeps it by her bedside, and every night she looks at it and cries.

Her son's first word is "Dada", and it's accompanied by the tiny hands grasping for the picture of Charlie.

This only makes her eyes water. She wants to be strong, to be strong for Aaron, but she can't help a few tears from rolling down her cheek, and she holds her little boy tightly. She puts the picture away after that, in the drawer in her nightstand.

* * *

When Aaron is in preschool, Father's Day rolls along and he asks her why all the other boys have daddies and he doesn't have one.

Who does she say his father is?

Thomas isn't his father, that's for sure. Perhaps biologically, but he is not the man she truly loved. No, she didn't know what love was when she met Thomas.

They say you only love once. She knows who she loves.

She doesn't know how to answer his question – she just tells him to ask her another time, when he's older.

* * *

When Aaron is seven, Thomas comes back. He wants custody of Aaron – he wants his son back. She knows what Thomas really wants – he has been trying to contact her ever since she got off of the island. He wants fame just as much as he ever did – he tried to get it through art, and he failed. Now he's trying to get fame through her son – through her and Charlie's son.

She wins the case, though.

She gets to keep her boy. Her and Charlie's boy.

But then, Aaron asks her who the man was – he asks her if it was his father.

She tells him no, she tells him that that man was just a mean man who wanted to take him away from her.

He tells her, in his sweet child voice, that he'll never leave her.

* * *

For his eleventh birthday, his Uncle Hurley buys him a guitar, a shiny, top-notch acoustic guitar, and everyone, 'Uncle' Jack and 'Aunt' Kate, 'Uncle' Sawyer and 'Aunt' Juliet and Clementine, 'Uncle' Jin and 'Auntie Sun' and Ji Yeon, all of them, they can tell that someday he's going to be great.

Everyone says it's lucky that he's talented.

She knows it's not luck. It's because of a man who played acoustic guitar by his handmade crib on, back on an uncharted island.

When he's fifteen, he and his girlfriend, Clementine, decide to form a band. She tells him, her eyes wet, to never, ever let the band make him do anything he doesn't want to do. He asks her if this is about his father.

She was hesitant to let him date Clementine. Clementine is, after all, two years older than him. But when he told her that he can be trusted – that he's growing up – she lets him.

She wanted Charlie to be there when Aaron grew up. She wanted Charlie to be there to teach him guitar. She wanted him to grow up knowing his father was a good man. Now he doesn't even know who his father is.

* * *

When he's seventeen, and struggling with the fact that his girlfriend is away at college, he doesn't talk to her about it, even though she sees his pain – the separation pain she's all too familiar with.

No, he doesn't talk to her. He goes over to 'Uncle' Jin and 'Auntie' Sun's, especially when Ji Yeon isn't going to be there.

One day he comes home with a ring with the letters 'D' and 'S' on it.

She almost screams when she sees it.

She asks him where he got that.

He says that 'Auntie' Sun gave it to him, and he says that he knows that it was his father's. He tells her that he remembers asking who his father was, that he remembers when the man came and tried to get custody of him.

Aaron says that he's older now, that it's time for her to tell him who his father is and what happened to him.

She goes upstairs and gets the one picture of Charlie she has. The picture was taken before the band went big – before his heroin addiction, the one he kicked for her. He's smiling cheekily, just the way she remembers him.

She tells Aaron that the man who came to take custody of him ten years ago is his biological father. But she tells him that the man is not his real father. She gives Aaron the photo, telling him that Charlie is his real father.

She tells Aaron about DriveSHAFT, about the island – she tells him about imaginary peanut butter and baby bjorns, about 'Catch a Falling Star' and 'You All Everybody'. She tells him about being kidnapped when she was pregnant, and that his father killed a man to save them both. She tells him about the first time she kissed him. She tells him about the last time she saw Charlie. She tells him that his father died to save them.

She breaks down in tears after that.

She tells him she died the day he died.

She tells him that she knows that someday she'll see Charlie again.

She tells him that she never loved anyone but his _real_ father.

She tells him that it is not biology that makes a father. She tells him that it is love.

And love made all the difference.

**Hope you liked it! Love always, Lily**


	2. Chapter 2

**Ok, I adore Aaron and Charlie and Claire so much that I decided to continue this and make it like a series of unrelated oneshots celebrating them, specifically Charlie's surrogate fatherness to Aaron. So this one has nothing to do with the last one, aside from similar subject matter. In this one, Claire broke off contact with all the other losties after being rescued early in Season 4. This takes place maybe like 20 or so years after the island. Hope you enjoy it!**

The boy who stands on the street corner playing old hits on his guitar peaks everyone's interest. For how talented he is, he shouldn't be playing on a street corner in Chicago.

He's attractive too. He's got sandy blond hair and deep blue eyes – the sad kind that seem like they know everything about you and more. Many pairs of feminine eyes look at him approvingly as he plays the old DriveSHAFT hit "You All Everybody".

He's always loved the song – perhaps because he has this half-remembered dream of a dream, where a man with brown-blond hair and dark sea-blue eyes is sitting and playing it on an out of tune guitar. This man is always in his dreams – kissing his mother, playing guitar, laughing, talking in a thick accent. And the words of a song always swim before Aaron's eyes when the man appears. The words of the Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever".

_Living is easy with eyes closed._

It's another of Aaron's favorite songs. Also because of the man that he feels some kind of deep connection to, the man that's always in his dreams.

He fantasizes about who the man might be – his father perhaps? The man kisses his mother in Aaron's dreams. He wears a ring with the letters DS on it…his initials?

But if the man is his father, his last name would be Littleton, like Aaron's.

Somehow he can't believe that the man with big ears and a ringing laugh and smiling eyes would leave him and his mother. He can't believe that the man who plays "You All Everybody" and sings to him would leave Aaron and his mother.

But if he didn't leave them – where is he now?

Where was he when Aaron first learned to ride a bike? Where was he when Aaron wrote his own song and performed it in his school talent show? Where was he when Aaron brought home his first girlfriend? Where was he when Aaron's band released their first album?

Where was he all the nights Aaron's mother cried in her bedroom, not knowing Aaron could hear her all along?

Aaron is about twenty-five now – he broke up with Clementine a year or so back – their band broke up. Aaron didn't know how to go back to his mother after the band broke up. She had never wanted him to be in a band. She cried when he told her. She begged him to never do drugs – or give in to any pressing fans. She pleaded with him to keep himself clean – not to do anything that he would be ashamed of later on.

He kept himself pure, because his mother had nothing but him left. She doesn't have anything but him and her tears.

He knows he's probably breaking her heart every day that he doesn't go back to her. But he can't. He can't come back to her lonely and unsupported – having not accomplished anything – having broken up with Clementine – having nothing to fall back on.

So he's been playing on street corners, bringing in all his money that way – only enough to buy food, to pay rent.

_Living is easy with eyes closed_.

He has a few songs that he always plays on street corners – "You All Everybody", "Strawberry Fields Forever", a few other songs. One day, after he finishes "You All Everybody", a petite Asian girl walks up to him, and says in a perfect American accent,

"Do you know who wrote that song?"

"Yeah, DriveSHAFT," he replies in his Australian accent.

"No, Charlie Pace," she says earnestly, "You're Aaron Littleton, aren't you?"

"How do you know my name?" he asks, raising his eyebrows.

"You look like your mom," she says sheepishly, "My mom – she knew yours."

"All right – so who are you?"

"I am Ji Yeon," she says softly, pushing her hair behind her ear.

"So you must be a big fan of DriveSHAFT to know which songs were written by Charlie Pace," Aaron says, warming up to the Asian girl already. Anyone who speaks his music language is fine by him.

"No – my parents knew him," she says.

"_Your _parents knew _Charlie Pace_?" Aaron asks, looking shocked, "Here – I'll buy you coffee. Did you ever meet him? We need to talk."

She smiles, and after he packs up his guitar, he walks her over to his favorite café. Despite the fact that today was a slow day – that the money in his guitar case should pay this next month's rent – he's going to buy her coffee because he wants to know what she knows about one of his favorite rock stars. He can't believe himself sometimes.

"So," he says, after they're sitting down, "Your parents actually knew the real Charlie Pace?"

"Yes," she says, and then she drops her bomb, "Your mother did too."

Aaron has always been a bit ashamed of the fact that even though he admires Charlie Pace's music so much, he doesn't even know what he looks like. And now this strange girl – Ji Yeon – is telling him that his mother knew Charlie Pace. How could that be possible? Charlie Pace went missing in a plane crash over twenty-five years ago – and when the survivors were rescued, he wasn't with them.

"What?"

"Here," she says gently, handing him a worn photograph, "This is him – with your mom."

Aaron takes the tattered photo from Ji Yeon's hand, and looks at it.

There's his mum, all right, a much younger, happier version of his mum. She's holding a little baby with fluffy blond hair. And she's hugging a man – a man with brown-blond hair and dark sea-blue eyes, and a tattoo on his shoulder that reads _Living is easy with eyes closed_.

Charlie Pace. The man from all the half-remembered dreams.

"Are you telling me that _Charlie bloody Pace _is my father?" Aaron asks her, rubbing his fingers into his temples.

"No," Ji Yeon says regretfully, "Although I'm sure your mom wishes he was. See – there was a plane crash – forty-eight survivors – your mom, my parents, Charlie Pace – they were stuck on an island…they bonded, Charlie and your mother – well, what my mom told me was that your real father abandoned you and your mom, and then on the island, Charlie stepped in and took over the role of your father and your mother's boyfriend."

"So my mum was in the Oceanic Flight 815 crash? Wait…my mum was in love with Charlie Pace?"

"Yes, and yes," Ji Yeon says, sighing, "But – something happened. He drowned – saving everyone – getting them off of the island."

Aaron can't say anything for a few minutes. He just sits there, fingering the photograph, understanding now why the words swim behind his eyes, why he loves the music he loves. Why his mum was afraid of him being in a band.

"I need to go back to her," Aaron murmurs, looking at his young mum's happy face, "I need to go back to my mum."

"Do it, Aaron," Ji Yeon says, "I know we just met, but – keep in touch, ok? I'm Ji Yeon Kwon."

She takes a pen, and scribbles her phone number on his hand.

Something flashes into his mind – a hand with calloused fingertips and the letters FATE written on tape wrapped around the fingers.

"See you later, Ji Yeon," he says, and then, swinging his guitar case over his shoulder, he walks out of the café.

He books the next flight back to his little hometown. People always think he lives in Australia, because of how he talks, but it's just because of his mum. No, he grew up in rural Colorado – his mum hates tropical areas – now Aaron knows why. The island. Charlie Pace.

He's home by that night.

He knocks on her door.

She opens it, and bursts into tears of joy, hugging him, crying out indiscernible words.

"It's ok, Mum," he says, "It's ok."

They talk for a while – he tells her why he hasn't been writing – he tells her about how he lost his band and how he has been playing on street corners to make do.

He was going to ask her about Charlie Pace – but she seems shaken up enough already without that. No, he'll wait for tomorrow.

That night, as he tries to sleep in his old bedroom, he hears an all too familiar set of moans and cries from his mum's bedroom. Now he understands. She always tried to be so strong for him – he believed her for so long. But then he started hearing her cry at night.

Tonight, he stands by her door, silently, and listens for the words strung between the cries.

_Charlie – Charlie – Charlie._

Then, suddenly, abruptly, the sobs stop, replaced by a sudden squeal of joy.

Aaron is mystified. He opens her door, only to see his mother sitting in the arms of a man with brown-blond hair and deep sea-blue eyes, and a tattoo that says,

_Living is easy with eyes closed_.

He seems older than he was in the picture that Ji Yeon showed Aaron – about twenty years older. His eyes are sadder.

"Aaron!" his mum cries out, "Charlie came back, Charlie came back."

He's starting to wonder if insanity is genetic.

"Aaron, I'm so sorry I never told you – that I broke off with all the people…from the island."

"It's ok, Mum," he says, still terrified by the way Charlie Pace – who is supposed to be dead – is holding his mum.

"No, it's not," his mum says, more to Charlie Pace than to Aaron, "I shouldn't have broken off with all of the people from the island. But I did. I couldn't have them reminding me of you! I couldn't have them dragging me back there – back into the past. I had to let it die. I never told Aaron about you or the island. I never told him anything."

"It's ok, love," Charlie Pace says, kissing his mum on the cheek.

"How did you get here?" Aaron demands. He almost wants to believe that this man is a figment of him and his mum's wild imaginations.

"I didn't die," Charlie Pace says simply, then turns to Aaron's mum, "Desmond thought I drowned, but I swum out of the little room. But by the time I made my way back to our beach, you all were gone. I lived there for about ten years, before people came to investigate, and then they found me. I pretended to be crazy – I didn't want the publicity. I came back to the real world secretly – no one knew I wasn't dead. And I've been looking for you ever since, Claire. And I've only now just found you…"

"How did you get in our house?" Aaron interrupts.

"I knocked a few times, no one answered, and I couldn't wait," Charlie Pace says, "I climbed in a window."

Aaron doesn't know what to say to that kind of persistence.

"Oh, I better introduce myself," Charlie Pace says, "I'm Charlie Pace. I was there when you were born, Aaron."

"I know."

"How do you know?" his mum whispers.

"I met this girl – Ji Yeon Kwon. She told me almost everything."

"Sun and Jin," Charlie says, remembering happily.

The three of them talk for a bit, his mum seeming really, truly happy for the first time since – well, for the first time for as long as Aaron can remember. Because now he knows who the man with the brown-blond hair and the deep sea-blue eyes and the "Strawberry Fields Forever" tattoo from all of Aaron's half-remembered _memories_ is. Now he knows why he loves his guitar and DriveSHAFT. Now he knows who his real father is.

He'll probably never know who his biological father is – and he doesn't want to. No, that man isn't his real father. This man is. This Charlie Pace.

**Awwww...Charlie didn't die! hurrah! sorry I just got sick of my unceasing angst so I decided to give you guys a little bit of a happy ending. I love Charlie's tattoo so that's why I put that in there so much :) Hope you liked it! Review and tell me what you thought! Love always, Lily**


	3. Chapter 3

Hey you all everybody! **cheeky smile** well, due to response that the one where Charlie lives should become a series, you may notice that sometime in the near future, a new Charlie/Claire story is up and the first chapter will be that oneshot. :) This story is not abandoned, nor will I take that chapter out of it (that sounded strangely professional). Anyways, I decided I'd give you an update for my PB&J stories.

This one - I have an idea for one more chapter...reviews with ideas would be appreciated.

The Love of A Father:

Chapter 3: "I see dead people" - Aaron Littleton (dun dun DUN!)

I am also currently making a oneshot songfic for Charlie and Claire - set to Last Kiss by Taylor Swift

Also, there is a full length PB&J afterlife story in the works right now - beginning with a letter Claire wrote to Charlie that he never saw. Here's a short preview:

"I'm sorry for all the times I thought you clung too tightly. I'm sorry for not kissing you every time I wanted to. And I'm sorry that I never told you I loved you. But I'm not sorry that I loved you."

And the Charlie alive one will probably be full length too. Just FYI this may take a little bit to get up. I need to update Harry Jackson and the Wardrobe of Breaking Dawn, PopStars, LOST Love, The 17th Hunger Games SYOT, and Lost in Facebook before I get around to all this.

Thank you, all you loyal readers - you know, sometimes I wonder whether anyone actually reads anything I write. You loyal readers and reviewers let me know that SOMEONE is there - that my stories are reaching SOMEONE if not everyone.

Love always,

Lily


	4. Chapter 4

**Ok, so here is the next chapter that I promised to you...in which Aaron Littleton sees dead people. Read on and you will see exactly what goes down...**

* * *

She's a brave woman – at least that's the show she puts on for the world. But she's not brave – not on the inside. She's not even brave enough to show Aaron a picture of him – of Charlie, Charlie Pace. There are so many to be found and yet Claire hasn't asked anyone for one – hasn't looked one up on the internet. She doesn't know why. Perhaps it's because she is afraid that Aaron won't remember – not that he could, after all, Charlie…left…when Aaron was only a few months old.

They never talk about Charlie. Aaron never asks who or where his father is, why all the other little boys have daddies and he doesn't. He's probably too young to understand anyways. After all, he's only four.

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One day, when he's eight, she decides that it's time – that he should see a picture of Charlie. So she goes onto the internet and finds one – one from DriveSHAFT's early days, before all the drugs.

It makes her want to cry – she doesn't. No, she's strong. She won't let this picture break her – she won't let this be what cracks her shell. She has something she needs to keep up – how the world sees her, how her little son sees her. Claire wants to curl up in a corner and cry like she did when she was little or when Thomas left her or when her mum went into a coma or when Charlie – Charlie…died. But no, she can't cry – she's not the same person anymore as she was back then. She was innocent – vulnerable – victim then, and she will not let that happened again. No, she's war-hardened.

So she walks up to Aaron, who's coloring at the kitchen table, and she puts the picture next to him.

"That's your daddy, Aaron," she says gently, keeping her voice steady for Aaron's sake, "He died – he died when you were just a baby."

"Don't be silly Mummy," Aaron says dismissively, unshakable in his eight-year-old logic, "My daddy's not dead. Except I didn't know he was my daddy, so I call him The Guy. He takes me to school, and then he walks me home from school."

Claire freezes, her hardened façade slipping from her face.

"What?"

"He walks me to school, and then he walks me home from school, Mummy," Aaron repeats, completely complacent, "He tells me jokes – he's got a nice laugh, Mummy. He tells good stories too."

"What kind of stories?" Claire asks, her voice strangling itself out of her throat.

"About a weird island," Aaron says, "You see, it's one long long story, and he tells me a little more every day. But there was an airplane – airplane number 815, and they crashed onto this island – there's a big black monster made of smoke, and there's a doctor named Jack who tries to take care of everyone. There's a man with a cowboy accent, Mummy, and there's a girl who did a very bad thing but nobody knows it yet. And there's a rock star who falls in love with a pregnant girl, Mummy, and her name is Claire – same name as you, Mummy! The rock star isn't the daddy, but he wants to be, and he wants to take care of the pregnant girl. There's a dog named Vincent and a little boy named Walt. But Walt got taken away from his dad, Michael, because when they tried to leave on a raft, a man with a beard came and took him away from Michael, the cowboy, and a Korean guy. It's the best story I've ever heard, Mum."

And then, as if what he just said was nothing, Aaron goes back to coloring his picture.

"Where did you learn all that?" Claire asks him sternly, "Who told you that?"

"The Guy," he says, pointing to the picture, "The Guy who walks me to the bus."

"The guy who walks you to the bus is dead, Aaron!" Claire scolds, her voice rising in pitch, "He's dead – who's telling you about the island?"

"The Guy with letters written on his fingers," Aaron says, looking disturbed.

"What do the letters say?" Claire demands.

"Love," he says, "L-O-V-E, one letter on each finger."

"That man died a long time ago, Aaron," she says.

"Do you know the island story?" Aaron asks, seamlessly changing the topic, and she knows he won't believe her when she tells him that Charlie is dead.

"Yes," she says weakly.

"How?"

"I was there," she murmurs, not even sure what she's saying.

"You were? Why doesn't The Guy tell me about you then?"

"He did, I guess," Claire says quietly, "I was the pregnant girl."

Flashes run through her mind – she remembers who she used to be, who she was when she was on the island. Sweet, innocent, careful and carefree, protective, loving…_happy._

"You were? Where's your baby?" Aaron asks critically.

"You are," she says.

"Oh. I'm in the island story?" Aaron gasps, dropping his crayon.

"It's not a story, Aaron, it's a terrible thing that happened to a lot of very good people," Claire says, pushing the memories to the back of her mind.

"Well who's the guy then?"

"Charlie – he's the rock star."

"You were in love with The Guy?"

"Yes," she whispers, "Yes."

"That must be why he told me to give you a message," Aaron says.

"What?"

"He told me to give you a message – just to let you know that everything would be ok. That's what he said, Mummy. He told me to tell you that it'll all be ok, that he's doing all right, that he can't wait til he sees you again. And also that he loves you, Mum."

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The next day, Claire tells her boss that she's feeling sick. She walks Aaron to school.

"It's funny," Aaron says, seeming confused, "The Guy isn't here today."

Claire's heart sinks – she wanted to believe that Aaron's words were more than just a hallucination, more than just childhood imaginings. But Charlie isn't here – Charlie isn't walking Aaron to the bus…and she's forced to realize that it's all just a story.

She doesn't go pick him up to walk him home from school – in fact, after she walked home without Aaron, she went into her room, closed and locked the door, and laid in her bed for hours.

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"Mum, I'm home," Aaron's little voice calls when he walks in the house, "The Guy walked me home from school!"

"I'm sure he did, honey," she says bitterly, trying her best to smooth out her hair as she walks out of her bedroom.

"He did, Mum!"

"Of course, Aaron."

She turns around and walks back into her bedroom, collapsing onto her bed.

"You know, I'm incredibly disappointed in you, love," a British voice says from close beside her, "I would have taken you for the kind that believed in ghosts."

"Charlie?"

"Hey Claire," he says, and as she lifts her head, she sees that he's sitting on her bed, his back against her headboard.

"What – how – wh-what are you doing here?"

"Well I came to talk to you of course," he says, "You know, I usually try to send messages through children. They're much more accepting. But you, you just wouldn't believe when I tried to talk to you through Aaron. So I decided this way was better. Bloody difficult though. Eko and Libby just about had a fit when I said I was going to appear to you and tell you that it wasn't a hallucination."

"Are you – can you…"

"If you're asking if you can kiss me because I'm just that roguishly handsome, well then yes, you can," he says, smiling, the corners of his eyes crinkling, "I'm completely corporeal, love."

"How?"

"I'm only here for a few minutes love, let's not waste it with me trying to explain the paranormal to you. Listen, I just want to give you a message. I'm all right," he says earnestly, "Bloody perfect, actually. Well, almost. There's only one thing that would make it better…you. But I wanted you to know that someday we'll be together again. You me _and _Aaron. I don't think I'll be visiting him anymore – he's starting to get too old for it. But I love you, Claire," he says.

"I love you too," she breathes back, and he pushes her hair behind her ear, before leaning in, and kissing her quickly.

It isn't cold like she thought it would be. No, it's warm and fiery and completely _alive_, the best thing she's ever tasted, the sweetest ache in her heart.

But when she opens her eyes, he's gone.

* * *

**I wanted him to be alive in the end...but I'm already writing Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed, so we'll just have to settle with Charlie returning as a ghost. **Sigh** So, please review and tell me what you thought of this chapter! Love always, Lily**


	5. IMPORTANT NOTE

**Hey hey hey everybody! Just needed to tell you all - I changed my pen name from .Alice to Violet Scarlet Lily. So I thought the best way to reach everyone so that I don't lose any of my minimal fan base was to post this in all of my multi-chapter stories. Sorry for making you all think this was an actual chapter - but I had to let you all know.**

**So spread the word - if anyone (it'd be a miracle), but if anyone is looking for me, I am now Violet Scarlet Lily. **

**But I am the same Lily. It's complicated.**

**Anyways, I should be updating most of my stories soon!**

**See ya!**

**Love always, **

**Lily  
**


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